The former England international was seen leaving Liverpool Dental Spa today with his wife Abbey Clancy, who is a regular, and daughter Sophia where the bruise underneath his right eye was clear to see.

Having started the season with five goals from his first seven games, Crouch’s season has tailed off, with his only goal before Saturday coming in a 2-2 draw with Wigan in January.

Stoke boss Tony Pulis had backed the former Tottenham hitman to rediscover his scoring touch, as he said before the QPR game: There's been a while, especially after his injury, where Peter has not performed to the level he was at before.

‘He had a good start to the season and looked a real handful. Hopefully he will be back to what he was in the next five games.’

Crouch came off with a minute to go at QPR but should be in line to face Norwich at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday.

Michael Owen could face a retrospective disciplinary charge from the FA after attempting to throw a punch at Arsenal's Mikel Arteta in Stoke City's 1-0 defeat at the Emirates.

The former England striker, who had been brought on as a late substitute, reacted fiercely to a strong tackle from the Spaniard and aimed a right-hander – missed by referee Chris Foy – that connected only weakly with Arteta's shoulder.

Flashpoint: Michael Owen loses his cool
as he clashes with Arsenal's Jack Wilshere after a heavy tackle by Gunners' Mikel Arteta

Flashpoint: Michael Owen loses his cool
as he clashes with Arsenal's Jack Wilshere after a heavy tackle by Gunners' Mikel Arteta

Owen then squared up to Jack Wilshere, who had rushed to the scene and the two players became embroiled in a pushing match.

The incident came amid a bad-tempered end to a match, in which Stoke contested Lukas Podolski's winner, between two clubs with a history of confrontation dating back to an incident when Aaron Ramsey broke a leg in a challenge from Ryan Shawcross three years ago.

Shawcross was again in trouble, receiving a yellow card that some will argue should have been red, as he slid into a challenge against Laurent Koscielny with studs up.

'I thought the Arteta challenge was a poor one but Michael shouldn't do that,' said Stoke manager Tony Pulis.

'That should be left to the referee.' Asked whether he expected Owen to be charged retrospectively, Pulis added: 'Let's see what they say. But I think it should have been a free-kick for us.

'If Michael has done what he has done and they look at it, they will deal with it.'

Stoking the flames: This was the rash challenge that sparked the flashpoint

Pulis was also aggrieved when Glenn Whelan was booked for a tackle that Stoke felt was not a free-kick and that Shawcross had needed four stitches in a leg wound after the challenge with Koscielny.

Jon Walters also required six stitches in a head wound after a clash of heads with Arsenal's 8million debutant Nacho Monreal. 'Glenn's was never a booking and when that went against us like that, it irritates you,' said Pulis. Arsene Wenger, meanwhile, felt that Shawcross should have been sent off.

'It looked it to me [to be a sending off] but I will have to look at it again,' said the Arsenal manager. 'I am maybe not completely objective with Ryan Shawcross, that is why I am cautious with my statement.'

Wenger had, however, not seen the Owen punch and so could not comment.

Hold your horses, Michael! Pulis tells fit-again Owen he needs more time off before return

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UPDATED:

11:14 GMT, 13 December 2012

Michael Owen's hopes of receiving a welcome birthday present from Stoke manager Tony Pulis have been put on hold.

Owen declared himself 'raring to go' after coming through 70 minutes of a behind-closed-doors friendly on Tuesday in a bid to step up his fitness after struggling with groin and hamstring niggles.

Practice makes perfect: Michael Owen needs more training before his returns, according to Pulis

Ahead of Saturday’s visit of Everton to
the Britannia Stadium, there was the prospect of Owen making his first
appearance for Stoke since October 27, the last of his four substitute
outings since joining the club at the start of September.

But ahead of the former England striker’s 33rd birthday on Friday, Pulis says Owen still needs at least another week of fitness work and another reserve outing before he can be thrown into the first team.

Pulis said: 'Michael did smashing on Tuesday, came through 70 minutes, but he needs more work on the training ground, a bit more strength

'He needs another couple of weeks of full training, another game or two first before we chuck him back in.

'That’s because every time we’ve tried to get him in there he has broken

Stoke's victory means Albion have
failed to defeat them in front of their own fans for nine years and they
have triumphed only twice in the last 30 league meetings.

They have won all four Premier League encounters at The Hawthorns without conceding a goal.
Kenwyne Jones made his first Premier League start of the season in place
of the injured Peter Crouch and was a constant threat to the West Brom
defence.

Albion drew a blank at home for the
first time this season and seldom looked like finding a way through the
Stoke back four in which skipper Ryan Shawcross was outstanding.

Youssouf Mulumbu gave his usual solid display in midfield while defender Gareth McAuley made several crucial challenges.

But Albion lacked their usual spark
in the attacking third of the pitch as they missed the opportunity to
reclaim third spot after Chelsea's lunchtime defeat against West Ham.

West Brom head coach Steve Clarke
made six changes from the side beaten at Swansea in midweek and handed a
debut to Sweden striker Markus Rosenberg.

Sliding in: Ryan Shawcross goes in hard on Graham Dorrans

Battle: Robert Huth (left) attempts to take the ball from the feet of Shane Long

Tussle: Dorrans tries to find a way past Steven N'Zoni at The Hawthorns

ones came close to breaking the deadlock in the 14th minute after a quiet opening to the game.
The Trinidad & Tobago international got on the end of a cross from
Geoff Cameron and directed his header back across goal and only inches
wide of the post.

Shawcross produced a fine tackle to
halt the run of Graham Dorrans on the edge of the Stoke box after a
reverse pass from Rosenberg.

Robert Huth blocked a fierce drive
from Mulumbu after Dorrans had found him in space but neither goalkeeper
had a save to make in the opening half-hour.

Huth became the first player to be yellow-carded after 35 minutes for bringing down Shane Long.
Stoke keeper Asmir Begovic had to back-pedal to parry a speculative dipping 40-yard attempt from Steven Reid over the bar.

Charlie Adam became the second Stoke player to be booked a minute before half-time for a foul on Zoltan Gera.

Goal-den boy: Tony Pulis puts his arm around his goalscorer

Wheeling away: Whitehead (left) and Jon Walters (right) celebrate

Shawcross followed him into referee Kevin Friend's notebook shortly after the restart after bringing down Long.

Begovic dealt comfortably with Jonas
Olsson's looping header from Long's cross as clear-cut chances continued
to be at a premium.

Pulis replaced Matthew Etherington with former Wolves winger Michael Kightly after 59 minutes.
Clarke then brought on forward players Romelu Lukaku and Peter Odemwingie for the ineffective Rosenberg and Gera.

Hounded: Goran Popov (right) is pursued by Walters

Come here: Youssouf Mulumbu (right) leaves Charlie Adam in his wake

McAuley produced a superb tackle inside the Baggies box to halt Jones in full flight.

But after 75 minutes Stoke broke the deadlock after a rare mistake by Jonas Olsson.

The centre-back tried to keep the
ball in play when challenging Jones but only succeeded in finding
Kightly. He ran unopposed into the Albion area and his low cross was
turned home by Whitehead.

Begovic parried a Dorrans drive but Stoke held out with relative ease for the three points.

Heather Weir and boyfriend Jamie Ness could not understand why their normally active golden labrador wanted to sleep all day

Stoke City's Jamie Ness and his model girlfriend Heather Weir say they owe their lives to their pet labrador after his strange behaviour prompted them to call in engineers.

They could not understand why their normally active dog Alfie suddenly wanted to sleep all day.

Investigations eventually revealed that the couple's Aga cooker was leaking lethal carbon monoxide gas that could have killed them.

One-year-old Alfie was sleepy because he was being slowly poisoned by the colourless, odourless gas.

Weir, 22, said: 'Without his strange behaviour Jamie and I would have went months not realizing what was leaking into our home.

'I love him so much and I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful companion – he saved our life.'

The 21-year-old midfielder moved from Glasgow to a new home in Cheshire with his girlfriend in July when he left Rangers for Stoke. He is yet to play for Tony Pulis's team in the Barclays Premier League but has represented Scotland through the age groups.

After noticing a strange smell, Heather had the stove checked and discovered it had been serviced and passed that month.

However, she said: 'Within the past four weeks, Alfie was sleeping all day. He had stopped playing with his toys and was just very lethargic.'

After returning from a family trip to the United States, Heather noticed Alfie was getting worse.

She said: 'He just wasn't right at all. Usually Alfie would be up and down like a yo-yo pestering me to play but instead, he went up to our room and slept for five hours.'

Heather had experienced a few brief moments of sickness but Jamie did not show any symptoms at all.

Determined to get the bottom of Alfie's strange behaviour, she called an engineer out to the home who immediately realised what was happening.

He told the couple that if Heather had not picked up on Alfie's sickness their exposure to the carbon monoxide leaking from the stove 'could have been fatal'.

Lucky escape: Stoke City Jamie Ness controls the ball against the Columbus Crew in July